DEMONSTRATORS BRING DRUG PROTEST INTO STORE

THE HARTFORD COURANT

Ten city activists held a 10-minute protest inside a North Main Street store Friday to denounce what they say is a common locale for drug dealing.

The activists, led by the Rev. Cornell Lewis, have been protesting on city street corners they say are used by drug dealers. Friday was the first time they had moved the protest into a store where they say the deals are tolerated.

The group gave the store clerk at Olga's Market a letter explaining the protest and stood in the aisles for about 10 minutes before moving to the corner of North Main and Sanford streets, Lewis said. A man inside the store called protesters troublemakers and others criticized them outside. Two police cruisers waited on the street, Lewis said.

The activists, who are part of a coalition led by the Greater Hartford branch of the NAACP, will continue to hold more sit-ins in the North End. Lewis said they plan to go into another store suspected of tolerating drug dealing and not leave until police ask them to or they are arrested.

No one answered a phone call seeking comment from Olga's Friday night.

Lewis and fellow activists have spent much of the summer videotaping dealers and camping out on street corners to encourage residents and merchants to fight violence, crime and drug dealing.